Combination-lock.



J. A. ELSESOR. COMBINATION LOCK. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 17, 1914.

. Patented July 27, 1915.

3 SHEETSSHEET I.

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ATTUR/VEV- J. A. ELSESOR.

COMBINATION LOCK.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT-17, 19M.

Patented July 27, 1915.

3 SHEETSSHEET 2- o Winn rx w l/VVEN/TOR n w .145 sesor'. @WLMW zVj/ dz J. A. ELSESUR. COMBINATION LOCK. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 17, 1914.

Patented July 27, 1915.

HEETSSHEET 3- JP /W JOHN A. ELSES OR, OF PORTLAND, OREGON, ASSI- GN OR TO EIlERTAe. H-lZLE, OFASTORIA,

. l OREGON.

COMBINATION-LOCK.

newer.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented: July 277', 1915.

ToaZZ whom it'may concern- Be it known that I, J OHN A. ELsnsoR, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of Portland, county of Multnomah, State of Oregon, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Comblnation-Locks, of which the following is a specification. The ob'ect of my invention is to provide a combination lock operated by depressible finger keys, which have to be selectively operated by the person possessing the right combination in order to unlock the lock.

My invention may be used on bolt locks and other locking devices, but it is especially devised" for locking the switch element of electric ignition circuit of internal combus tionengines, as in automobiles, motor boats, etc. In this connection my device rovides a l'r eylelss lock rendering. the machine incapable ofuse except to the person possessed of the right combination of my lock.

, In illustrating and describing my invention l; have shown the same as apphed un der the last named condition. In such use of invention, I attain my ohject by supporting the movable member of the switch, the electric circuit, on a pivoted and combining the latter a latch element normally locking such bail against motion; the latch element being operated by a fingerkey 1501', releasing thelsame from the bail;

in order to complicate the locking mechanism and render the same difiicult to operate by a person not possessed of the right con ibination, I, provide further interfering latch-elements, normally disengaged" from the pivoted bail and adapted to be thrown intofl ocking engagement therewith by op.- erating the finger-key with which such interfering. latch elementis provided; also, I A rovide spring-controlled keys adapted to simulate the resistance and touch the lreys o f'thelatch-elements so that the operator of the look, not having. the right combination, would be deceived, by operating'the blind spring keys, into the belief that he was manipulating thekeys that were connected with the latching elements of the combination lock. i

O ther features of my invention are hereafter fully described, reference-being had to the'accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a front elevation showing my device as. applied for controlling the electric ignition circuit of an internal combustion engine; Fig. 2 is a right-endelevation of the device shown in. Fig-f 1:, with a portion of the casing broken away so as to illustrate the electrical switch connections; the full lines show the switch open, and the broken lines show the same closed;"-Fig. 3 is a leftend elevation. of the parts shown in Fig. 1, with a portion ofthe casing broken away so as to illustrate the spring which normally holds the device in its unlocked state; Fig. it is a sectional view taken approximately on the line of Fig. 1; Figs. 5, 6 7 are larger-scale sectional views taken approximately on the line 5 5,,6'6, and 77-respectively; Fig. 8 shows an. alternate construction, which may be used in place of the construction shown in Fig. 51

For convenience I shall term the electric switch element. of the electric ignition circuit as the controlling mechanism. The case, 0:, contains my loc'li mechanism. The case is provided at its right end (with respect to I and as shown in Fig. 2-) with aseparate compartment inwhichthe electrical switch elements are contained; consisting of" the stationary member b and the movable member cfthe latter being carried on thebail c Z, pivoted between the ends of the case, a, on an aX'le'e. The pivoted bail is controlled by spring f, wliich normally holds the bail .as shown in broken outline in Fig. 3, andiwhen so arranged the electric switch will be. closed, asapparent from Fig; 2. 0n theprojectingouter end' of thea xle, e, isafiixed crank g, for rotating the bail' against the tension of the spring and into. its inactive positiom When inthis position it is lockedagainst movement by a latch element of the character illustrated in 4. It; consists of-alatch-barh, pivoted at ii", and normally held. in looking engagement" with the cross piece of the bail, (Z, by spring hF, as shown Fig. The latch-bar h is provided a spring-arm Z2 against which bears the stem of a dep ressible key" ht, controlled by a spring it. By pressing in'thelrey' it, its stem willpush against the spring it? or the latch-bar hand. move the latt'er out of engagement witli the'bail 4, and

as soon as the bail,cZ, is released the spring will operate to pull the same into its active position.

In order to make my lock more difl'icult to manipulate by a person not possessed of its combination, I prefer to provide a plurality of latch elements, each operating to normally hold the bail, (Z, against movement when placed in its inactive position. These secondary latching means are illustrated in Fig. 5. They consist of a latchbar Z, pivoted at Z and controlled by a spring Z In the lower end of the latch-bar i is provided a spring arm 2' On the pivot or axis, 2', is pivoted a supplemental latch-bar j, provided with a stud 7' adapted for engaging with a recess i of the latch-bar 2'. The supplemental latch-bar j is controlled by a spring 7' To the supplemental latch-bar j is connected the stem of the spring-controlled key j. The last described latch element is operated as follows: First the key 7' must be pressed in, which operates to throw the supplemental latch-bar 7' against the latch-bar z, releasing the latter from, and engaging the former with, the bail (Z. The key is must thenbe pushed in, in so doing bringing its stem is in front of the spring arm i and thus preventing the latch-bar i from returning to its normal position. The key 7' must then be released, and thereupon the secondary or last described latch element is entirely released from the bail d, and if the latch element comprising the latch bar it (shown in Fig. 4.2) has previously been operated so as to release the bail d, the spring 7 of the latter will act to throw the same into its active position. In order to further complicate my lock, With respect to the manipulation required of its keys in order to release the bail 0?, I provide another latch element comprising a latch-bar Z, operated by a key Z, and in all respects being a duplicate, with respect to function and modeof operation, of the latch element including the latch-bar 72, shown in Fig. 4. Therefore a lock comprising the latch-bars it, 2', j, Z, will require the cooperative manipulation of the keys 71 3' is Z.

To still further complicate and bafiie the unauthorized manipulation of my lock, I provide interfering latch elements represented by m, n, operated by keys m, n,

and a further interfering latch element 0, operated by a key 0', an interfering latch element comprising latch-bars p, operated by a key 3?, and a latch bar 9, operated by a key 9'. The interfering latch elements including the latch-bars m, n, 0, p, g are thus normally out of engagement with the bail (Z, and are thrown into locking movement with the latter by depressing in their keys.

A plurality of interfering latch elements similar in construction to the elements shown in Fig. 6 is provided in my lock, the same being disposed as shown by Fig. 1, in which all these elements are distinguished by having the same reference characters to designate their keys.

To further complicate my lock and baflle its unauthorized manipulation, I provide a plurality of blind keys as 1", controlled by springs r. The respective springs of all the keys of my lock are adapted to give each key the same touch, and thus the touch and resistance of the blind keys r will simulate the touch and resistance of the keys which are connected to and operate the described latch elements of my device.

To permit the bail (Z to be drawn down by its spring 7", when released, and also permit the same to be brought back into looking engagement with the latch elements by the operation of the crank g, I construct the latch bars as shown, each havinga portion as 8 adapted for being brought into engagement with the cross piece ZZ of thebail (Z, and having beveled surfaces as t, on which rides the cross piece (Z of the bail (Z, and causes said cross piece to move the latchbar out of the way when the crank g is rotated to restore the bail d to its inactive po sition.

comprising two cooperating members which are required to be cooperatively manipulated through the medium of their connected keys, in order to release the bail aZ. This latch mechanism consists of a latch bar 20, adapted for normally being in engagement with the cross piece (Z of the bail d, asshown in Fig. 8. A latch-bar o is provided with a stud o and the latter is engaged by a hook arm a, carried by the latch-bar a. The latch-bar u is operated by a connected finger M. In order to release the bail d from the latch element shown in Fig. 8, the latch key 10 must first be pressed in, the stem thereof In Fig. 8 I have shown a'latch element disengaging the spring hook arm a from v the stud '0 of the latch-bar o, and the key a may then be pressed in, with the effect of disengaging the latch bar a from the bail (Z.

The two-membered latching device shown in Fig. 8 may be substituted in place of the two-membered latching device consisting of elements 2', j and keys y' is shown in Fig. 5.

The latch-bar m in Fig. 8 is an interfering latch element similarto the interfering latch element 72. in Fig. 5.

3 represents stud pins or stops for the bars to bear against.

The operation of my device is self evident from the foregoing description of its construction.

As self evident, the positions of the respective latch-bars and the blind keys may be changed to effect a great number of varying combinations.

I claim:

1. In a look a locking element consisting of two spring-controlled pivoted latch-bars, one of such latch-bars being in active or engaging position, an operative connection between said two latch-bars adapted to cause the inactive one thereof to be thrown into its active position when the other is thrown into-inactive position, an operating key connected with one of said latch-bars, and keyoperated means for temporarily interrupting said operating connections between said latch-bars.

2. In a look a locking element consisting of two spring-controlled pivoted latch-bars, one of such latch-bars being in active or engaging position, an operative connection between said two latch-bars adapted to cause the inactive one thereof to be thrown into its active position when the other is thrown into inactive position, an operating key connected with one of said latch-bars, key-operated means for temporarily interrupting said operating connections between said latch-bars; another spring-controlled latchbar normally in its engaging position, and fin operating key connected with such latch- 3. In a look a locking element consisting of two spring-controlled pivoted latch-bars, one of such latch-bars being in active or engaging position, an operative connection between said two latch-bars adapted to cause the inactive one thereof to be thrown into its active position when the other is thrown into inactive position, an operating key connected with one of said latch-bars, keyoperated means for temporarily interrupting said operating connections between said latch-bars; another spring-controlled latchbar normally in its engaging position, and an operating key connected with such latchbar; another spring-controlled latch-bar normally out of its engaging position, and

an operating key connected with such latchbar.

JOHN A. ELSESQR. l/Vitnesses:

WM. C. SGHMITT, CECIL Lone.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

